I have trouble believing this is a gopher snake. it looks very similar to a morph of of a king snake I saw a couple of weeks ago in the same area. the stripes are very pronounced and unlike a gopher snake. It looks like it may have been eaten by a great Blue heron. there were huge blue grey feathers next to the carcass.
This snake was very inactive, and moved very little during our encounter. It was still in the same location at 1210 PDT. Air temperature was 55 F at initial encounter.
There's some question whether this could be a C. stephensi. Opinions please!
Dead
location corrected